App Review: Lyrics+ by ShroederDev

Update: This app appears to have been removed from the app store since our review was written. The following statement was taken from the developers website:

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that the LyricWiki API has been shutdown by the record companies. We are currently working diligently to secure a new licensing agreement and rebuild the app. We strongly urge all of our customers to keep the app as the release of an update is quite probable. However, if a refund must be obtained, please contact Apple directly as we have no means of delivering refunds to our customers.

Have you ever wondered about the lyrics to a song? You like the beat, but what are they saying? Now there is an app that can give you the lyrics quickly and easily while you are listening to the song. Lyrics+ by ShroederDev gives you access to the lyrics to countless songs. The app offers a few different methods for finding the lyrics. The easiest way is probably to launch the Lyrics+ app while a song is playing on your iPod or iPhone. When the app comes up, tap on “now playing song…” The app will pull up the artist, title, and words to the song.

Finding the lyrics in either of the two other ways requires launching the app first. Once in the app you can “pick from library…” or “search by artist, song…” Pick from library brings up the typical music menu on your device and you can choose a song from your music library. Searching is the only method by which you can get lyrics for songs that you don’t have on your iPhone or iPod. The search parameters require, however, that you know the artist, which is a slight drawback. Sometimes I know the title or can guess pretty close, but have no idea who the song is by. The song title field is optional. I did appreciate that once you searched by artist and received the search results, you could then search those results again by title. So, if you know exactly what you are looking for, it is easy to find.

In trying out the app, I ran into a few minor problems. First, I tried pulling up the lyrics to the recent Daughtry album. I got the lyrics quickly, but there were slight typographical errors in the text. Not a huge deal, though. Second, there were several songs that I could not get the lyrics for by simply using the “now playing song…” function. However, when I searched for the song using the search function, I found them quickly and easily. I think this problem may be a function of how some of the music got onto my iPod. Yes, I do own all the music, but some of the songs were put on from MP3’s from old CD’s of mine and may not have all the information needed to pull up the lyrics using this app. Again, a minor drawback. Third, in some of the searches that I performed, the song I wanted was in the search results, but the lyrics were missing. In these cases, the app will ask if you want to search for the lyrics using Safari.

I did like that when you pull up the lyrics for a song that is playing, the app also provides you with controls for the songs playback. You can pause it, change the volume, or skip around in the song using the bar at the top. It was helpful not to have to exit the app and come back to it every time I wanted to pause the song or turn up the volume. Overall, Lyrics+ is a fun app to have. Now I can finally figure out what all my favorite songs are about. Definitely worth $0.99.

Comments

I purchased this app on 7/13/09 and loved it even though it couldn’t find the lyrics to many songs. Very cool app, but it has stopped working altogether. Something about licensing restrictions. How do I get it to work or how do I get my dinero back?